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Ambrosius Bosschaert. Le Monogrammiste Par Olaf

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Ambrosius Bosschaert. Le Monogrammiste Par Olaf AMBROSIUS BOSSCHAERT. LE MONOGRAMMISTE PAR OLAF GRANBERG. ARMI les peintres de nature morte hollandais au commencement du XVJIe siecle, l'une des premi?res places est occup6e par le peintre de fleurs dont nous donnons ci-dessus le monogramme. Il est, dans son genre, un 1JZaítre. Contemporain du grand artiste flamand JAN BRUEGHEL, qu'il rappelle un peu, il est aussi l'un des fondateurs de la peinture de flours n6erlandaise. Cependant, tout ce qui concerne ce peintre si distingu6, dont les tableaux portent les dates 16og-i630, est reste jusqu' ici un mystere. Jadis on 1'appelait AMBROSIUS ou ABRAHAM BRUEGHEL, aujourd'hui l'on attribue a BALTHASAR VAN DER AST ses superbes tableaux, qui se trouvent notamment dans les mus6es de Vienne [Belvedere] (date de de Copenhague (1618), de Stockholm (1620), chez M. DES TOMBES a la Haye, M. A. BREDIUS a Amsterdam, M. PETER SEMENOV a St. P6tersbourg, le Consul Weber à Hambourg etc. Pour ma part, j'avais toujours dout6 que B. VAN DER AST eut peint ces divers tableaux, bien qu'ils rapPPllent un peu les ceuvres sign6es B. v. A. ou B. VAN DER AST. D'abord la plus grande lettre du monogramme, l'A, doit, comme l'usage de ce temps 266 nous le montre, indiquer, non pas le nom de famille, mais bien celui de baptéme; ensuite il nous avait toujours paru fort invraisemblable que B. VAN DER AST, selon toute proba- bilité ne peu avant r59o, fut d6j4 en 1609 un peintre si compl?tement developpe, un * maitre arrive au point culminant de son art. , J'avais longtemps cherché a trouver la trace du veritable nom de notre mono- grammiste. Toujours en vain. mais enfin le hasard et les d6couvertes d6cisives de M. A. BREDIUS m'ont donn6 le mot de 1'6nigme. Pendant mes recherches dans les collections privees de la Suede j'ai trouv6 chez M. Th. SCHAGERSTROEM a Stockholm un tableau: - un bouquet de tulipes, de roses, de lys et d'autres fleurs dans un verre pose sur une table, et, a c6t6 des fruits, des coquil- lages et des insectes - sign6: A. BOSSCHAERT, et entièrement dans la mani?re de notre monogrammiste. Je fus aussit6t convaincu que j'avais cette fois trouv6 le nom reel du monogram- miste, mais, plus tard, je vis chez Me WAHLBERG, dans la mdme ville, une nature morte : - un plateau avec un verre a vin, un citron, des raisins, etc. -, tableau sign6 A. Bosschaert t6q.o mais peint dans la mani?re de B. V. D. AST. Cette d6couverte me fit douter de l'identit6 de notre monogrammiste avec le peintre A. BOSSCHAERT. Les tableaux du monogrammiste 6tant dates de i6o9-163o et celui de BOSSCHAERT de 1640 ! Ce BOSSCHAERT, n'6tait-il pas un artiste d'une epoque plus avanc6e? Je trouvais bien, il est vrai, dans un livre du Dr. S. MULLER ("Schildersvereenigingen te Utrecht"), qu'un certain AMBROSIUS BOSSAERT en 1616, refusa de payer sa cotisation d'entr6e comme peintre dans la gilde d'Utrecht, et M. BREDIUS me communiqua, sur ma demande, qu'un certain ABRAHAM BOSSCHAERT (ABRAHAM 6tant inscrit, sans doute, par erreur du notaire, au lieu de AMBROSIUS), artiste, venant d'Utrecht, demeura en 1637 a Amsterdam, ou, le 30 juin de la meme ann6e, un marchand de drap de Delft le somma de payer une dette de 181 fl. Mais, apr?s tout, rien ne prouve que cet A. BOSSCHAERT fut notre peÍ1ztre de /leurs. Cependant M. BREDIUS, trouva quelque temps plus tard, dans un document d'Amsterdam que le 25 avril 1640, parmi d'autres tableaux, se trouvaient taxes ceux d'un marchand d'objets d'art d'Amsterdam. "Un pot de fieurs, peint par A??2bYOSius Bosschaert" (24 florins,) et, dans ,,l'Archief voor Nederl. Kunstgeschiedenis" il vient de nous faire connaitre, que notre AMBROSIUS BOSSCHAERT fut en 1593, "beleeder" et en 1597, 1598, I 603, 1604, 1612 et 1613 doyen de la Gilde de Middelbourg. Un autre document relev6 des archives d'Amsterdam nous montre qu'a sa requ?te un certain MICHEL DE FORT, d6clara le 23 octobre 1615 par devant le notaire P. MATHIJSZ qu'il eut quatre ans auparavant achet6 une t6te de St. J6r6me 4 ce qu'on lui dit alors peint par BLOEMAERT. Il l'avait vendu pour dix livres flamands 4 un ama- teur de Middelbourg, qui lui avait retourn6 le tabieau, sous pr6texte que ce ne fut qu'une copie. .
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